Humor makes happy relationships. Not to be confused with sarcasm or teasing, humor is one our most effective coping mechanisms. Just consider the Academy-Award nominated movie Life Is Beautiful. Humor allows us to experience an escape from life’s inescapable predicaments....

Lying in a relationship. One of our gravest upsets. When I was twenty-four, I opened the trunk of my husband’s Buick and my mind fell into despair. Stuffed behind the scuzzy spare tire in a crumpled bag, a brand new pair of L.L. Bean rag wool muk-luk slippers languished....

Get comfortable with the uncomfortable, because it is the key to realizing happiness. The popular writer Pema Chödrön, who was born Dierdre Brown in New Jersey (but, hey, that’s another story) put it this way: “. . .the pain that you’re resisting cuts you off from...

Let’s consider the confines of an open marriage. Yes, an open marriage. Yes, the kind where you and your spouse can date and have sex with others, outside the marriage. This past month, The Times Magazine published a challenging and intriguing article by Susan Dominus that...

Long marriages. “Breaking up and starting fresh, which everyone around you seems to be doing, can begin to look like a wonderful and altogether logical proposition. . .” Humph. The title was attention-getting enough when a few years back Ada Calhoun wrote those words...

There are three slightly subtle scenarios for when to seek infertility counseling. Subtle only in that they creep in on us, and then they sound off like a wake-up call. Wouldn’t it be nice to detect the scenario before the sirens? But, wait. Even before these more common...

It’s curious how few of us know that our vacation is not a vacation. It’s a trip. But, I am not the one who put words to this conundrum. Below is a guest post by M.Blazoned. After posting it on her own blog page, it was also shared at the Huffington Post ba...

When it comes to a relationship, the majority of us seem to slide into them. Unfortunately, sliding is not deciding. It is a route to mid-life crises. For instance, take living together: Researchers at the University of Colorado found that two-thirds of us just sort of slide...

Economists have two Qs for you to ask yourself: 1. On a scale of one to five, how do you think your level of happiness would be if you and your partner separated? One, being awful and five being better. 2. How do you think your partner’s level of happiness would be if the...

Ever feel like you might as well be auditioning for love and attention on NBC’s show The Voice? We might not be holding a mic, singing for a little t.l.c. and approval. But, we do long for affection, emotional support, solidarity, humor, undivided listening, sex and so on....